Guelph Storm forward Jason Dickinson was held pointless Sunday afternoon as the host Brampton Battalion skated to a 5-1 Ontario Hockey League victory. The 17-year-old Georgetown resident has been on a point-a-game pace this season and NHL scouts are keen observers of the projected first-round pick's performance.

Dickinson in NHL draft picture

By Daniel Girard

Guelph Storm head coach Scott Walker admits a couple of times this season he’s glanced over as forward Jason Dickinson arrives at the rink clad in a track suit, a big grin on his baby face, and wondered if he’s the stick boy.

Any lingering doubts are erased when the 17-year-old steps onto the ice.

“The best part about this kid is that his upside is endless,” Walker says of Dickinson, a highly-touted 6-foot-2, 176-pound Orangeville native. “He’s not going to shave until he’s 35 and he’s still got a million miles to go in filling out.

“They (opponents) have trouble getting the puck off him now. What are they going to do when he’s 200 or 210 pounds?”

Dickinson, a graduate of the AAA Halton Hurricanes minor hockey program, went through the typical 16-year-old OHL rookie adjustment last season, notching just one goal and six assists in his first 25 games.

But by Christmas he was earning lots of minutes and in the playoffs, Dickinson centred the first or second line as the Storm fell in six games in the opening round to the Plymouth Whalers, who tied for second overall.

Dickinson was named to the OHL second all-rookie team after 35 points in 63 games and, so far this season, has picked up right where he left off.

“My confidence has sky-rocketed to a whole other level,” says Dickinson, a potential first-round pick in June’s NHL entry draft, according to a preliminary list from NHL Central Scouting. “Coming off such a strong season last year I really feel comfortable in this league and that I can make a difference.”

Dickinson is using his size better to win the puck and maintain possession. He has a good scoring touch and is improving his two-way game. He’s also shown versatility, moving back to centre from the wing after fellow 17-year-old Hunter Garlent went down with a broken ankle last month.

Despite the increased confidence and more refined game, Dickinson admits he went into last summer’s Team Canada tryouts for the Ivan Hlinka under-18 tournament “feeling a little flustered and overwhelmed” to be among a group of top-40 players that included No. 1 prospect Nathan MacKinnon. He got off to a slow start at camp and, despite improving with each practice and scrimmage, ended up being cut from the eventual gold-medal winning team.

“There’s no doubt I wish I had a second chance at it,” says Dickinson, who has yet to play internationally, having also been cut at U16 and U17 levels.

“But it was a fantastic learning experience,” he says. “It showed me what the other guys are capable of and that I’m capable of playing just as good, if not better than them. They’re not special, they’re just regular guys like I am.”

OHL NOTES: Released by the Mississauga Steelheads, Georgetown’s Justin Rasmussen is now in PEI, playing for the Summerside Western Capitals, who will host the Royal Bank Cup national championship tournament in May. The 19-year-old forward scored a shootout-winner in his debut and has two goals and four assists in nine games…Local resident Jacob Harris is out of the Sudbury Wolves’ lineup with a concussion…Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds’ defender Chris Buonomo was suspended 15 games for a check to the head of Ottawa 67s forward Connor Brown. Brown, from Georgetown, was not seriously injured and played in the next game.